Jobs Act Passes House Without MBL

The House of Representatives has passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act by a bipartisan vote of 390 to 23, but without any provision for lifting the cap on credit union member business lending.

But CUNA lobbyists explained that they had not expected the bill to include any MBL provisions and have instead set their sights on getting something included in the Senate version of the measure.

“The legislation that passed today was a compilation of five or six measures that had already passed the House at different times and was thus very narrowly crafted,” explained Ryan Donovan, CUNA's senior vice president for legislative affairs. “House rules make it very difficult to add anything new to a measure that has been created in this way so we didn't try to get MBL added to it,” Donovan said, adding, “we have friends on the Hill who are willing to help us, but it didn't make sense to ask them to do what they were not going to be able to do.”

Instead, Donovan said credit union advocates have been lobbying to get legislation lifting the MBL cap added to a version of the legislation being considered in the Senate and then plan to focus on making sure it stays in through whatever process lawmakers use to reconcile the two different versions of the legislation. Should the Senate add MBL legislation to its version of the JOBS Act, it is unclear what the outcome might be, Donovan said, because a lot could depend on what procedure lawmakers decide to use for reconciliation. “I am very reluctant to handicap it, because we are just not there yet,” Donovan said. “But if we can get a version of the MBL legislation added to the Senate bill, that would be a huge step forward.”